Travel News

Jerusalem Now: Look Beyond the Old City for Secular Treasures

Locations in this article:  Berlin, Germany Hong Kong

Most people head to Tel Aviv for secular adventures in Israel, but there’s another side to the spiritual center, Jerusalem. Alison Brower goes outside the Old City to find the latest galleries, shops, parks and night clubs.

Every year, more than two million people visit Jerusalem―and most of them never venture far past the spiritual and historical treasures of the Old City: the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and more. At best, most just save one morning for Yad Vashem, Israel’s museum dedicated to the Holocaust, and an afternoon to visit the Israel Museum, a dramatic building with rich art and archaeology collections, as well as a beautiful outdoor sculpture garden.

Jerusalem’s centuries-long status as a sacred destination for pilgrims and students of all three major global faiths―Judaism, Christianity, and Islam―has obscured its secular pleasures. For cutting-edge arts, music, shopping and clubs, faith-fatigued tourists head west to Jerusalem’s more hedonistic Mediterranean sister city, Tel Aviv. Which means they’re missing out on a burgeoning cultural scene, great outdoor recreation, and some hidden neighborhood shopping, restaurant and nightlife gems.

Arts Adventures

Jerusalem Print Workshop Founder Arik Kilemnik

While the galleries of Tel Aviv rival those in Berlin, Hong Kong and New York for fabulous clientele and eye-popping prices, the art scene in Jerusalem is enriched by the city’s complex history and by social and political conflict. In fact, Jerusalem is the home of Israel’s largest art school, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, which has given rise to a number of avant-garde schools, galleries and museums―particularly in the historically impoverished Musrara district right along the Seam, the border between West and East Jerusalem. The Naggar School of Photography, Media & New Music has two galleries featuring photography, animation and multi-media exhibits by students and visiting artists. The school―generally called just “Musrara”―also holds workshops for Jewish and Arab children with special needs, as well as an annual festival, Musrara Mix, with exhibits and activities that reach out into neighborhood homes and courtyards.

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